716 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



llOMLS 



byA.LROOT 



F And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be 

 fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 

 subdue it.— Genesis 1 : 28. 



For of such is the kingdom of heaven.— Matt. 19:14. 



On my return from Florida I met Mrs. 

 Root at the home of our youngest daughter 

 in New York city, and we passed a week 

 very pleasantly in studying the great me- 

 tropolis. It was not exactly the kind of 

 "nature study" that I have been telling 

 you all about on my Florida island, for we 

 studied humanity, at least a part of the 

 time, rather more than chickens. Among 

 other things, we took an automobile trip 

 around the city, and listened meanwhile to a 

 megaphone lecture. We passed the residence 

 of Mrs. Russell Sage, Mrs. Hettie Green, and 

 various other celebrated personages. The 

 "lecturer" seemed to give special attention 

 to the homes of millionaires. I remember he 

 said in one place something like this: 



" Gentlemen and ladies, the man who lives 

 over there had so much trouble with his wife 

 that he gave her two million dollars to va- 

 cate and get out of his way. But after he 

 got rid of her he invited her to come back, 

 and he let her keep the two million dollars 

 too." 



Now, I can not just tell whether it was the 

 lecturer or somebody else who intimated that 

 this multi-millionaire had got his eye on a 

 young actress, but the good wife stood in the 

 way. When he found, however, that this 

 actress was not impressed by his millions as 

 he had calculated, he was glad to get his 

 lawful wife back again. 



Owing to my deafness I could not catch 

 all the talk, especially as most of it was giv- 

 en while we were going at a rapid rate. 

 But I caught something like this: The speak- 

 er, swinging his hand over a certain part of 

 the city, said, "Over in this section there 

 are sixteen babies born every minute." Then 

 he named another part of the city — I am 

 sorry I can not give it — where, he said, there 

 were only sixteen babies born in a whole 

 year. I presume the "sixteen every min- 

 ute ' ' referred to some regions densely popu- 

 lated by the lower classes of emigrants and 

 foreigners. The other location was proba- 

 bly among the millionaire people and well- 

 to-do folks, and I greatly fear, dear friends, 

 it is beginning to apply to our educated, in- 

 telligent, fairly well-to-do men and women. 



You who have known me longest are per- 

 haps well aware that I rejoice to see young 

 people get married; and it pains my heart to 

 see any man or woman, especially gifted and 

 talented men and women, when they get 

 along to 25 or 30, seem to be making no 

 plans for the building-up of a home. Now, 



after these young people get married I still 

 feel anxious in regard to their future welfare 

 and future value to humanity in general, un- 

 til I see some little ones coming to that 

 home, provided it is such a home as God de- 

 signetl every home should be from the foun- 

 dation of the world; and I propose, dear 

 friends, to consider in my talk to-day some 

 of the obstacles that stand in the way of the 

 making of American homes. I have already 

 considered the objections to getting married, 

 but I will go over them briefly here. One 

 of them is that young people can not afford 

 it; that the young man is not getting suffi- 

 cient salary, etc. When Mrs. Root and I 

 had decided that we would work together 

 side by side, this question came up. I think 

 it was $3.50 a week that I was paying for my 

 board. Well, with this $3.50 she provid- 

 ed the table for us both and had something 

 left. Mrs. Root is a worker, as you may 

 happen to know. She was a worker when 

 she was a girl; and although she is now well 

 along toward 70 she is a pretty lively work- 

 er yet. Our fathers and mothers were none 

 of them well to do, but they managed to 

 give us a few things to start the home; and 

 Mrs. Root gave me better fare than I ever 

 got at any boarding-house, and had some- 

 thing left, to say nothing about the fun we 

 two had every day of our lives. Of course, 

 there was a little bit of a cloud over us when 

 we first had intimation that a little prattler 

 was coming to stay with us a little earlier 

 than we had planned; and when another 

 and another came along, I fear, perhaps, 

 there was some murmuring. But, dear me! 

 how difficult it was to learn that God's plans 

 were very much wiser and better than ours ! 

 Had it not been for the five little prattlers 

 that came along, one after the other, how 

 could I have gone up to Michigan and start- 

 ed a peach-orchard, or gone down to Flori- 

 da when bleak weather came, and played 

 with my chickens all daylong? Young peo- 

 ple, when they start out in life, seldom think 

 of these things; but, my dear young friends, 

 how in the world are you going to keep 

 young to the end of your days, and enjoy 

 life up to a good old age, unless you have 

 not only children but grandchildren as well 

 to take up life's duties and give you a res- 

 pite and vacation in due time, to say noth- 

 ing of making things lively and full of life 

 all around the neighborhood? 



Perhaps the getting married part of it can 

 be got along with; but I am told that the ob- 

 stacles are multiplying against having chil- 

 dren in the home. Our youngest daughter 

 has one of the most convenient homes — that is, 

 convenient for making it easy and pleasant for 

 housework — that it has ever been my good 

 fortune or that of Mrs. Root to see. They 

 live in one of the New York apartment 

 houses or flats. There are no cottages in 

 New York, with their vine-covered porches 

 and pretty little dooryards. Although Mr. 

 Boyden, our son-in-law, went 13 miles away 

 from his oflice out in the suburbs to find a 

 place where apartments were reasonably 

 cheap, about the only thing they could do 



